By Mike Finger, Staff writer | San Antonio Express-News (SAEN), 2024-06-27 00:58:58
由生成式人工智能翻译，译文内容可能不准确或不完整，以原文为准。
6 月 26 日星期三，2024 年 NBA 选秀大会在纽约巴克莱中心举行。图中，在首轮比赛中被圣安东尼奥马刺队以第四顺位选中后，斯蒂芬·卡斯尔(Stephon Castle)（右）与 NBA 总裁亚当·萧华合影留念。
纽约——从舞台到更衣室，从一个电视网络到另一个电视网络，从巴克莱中心深处的主席台到深夜的沙发，斯蒂芬·卡斯尔(Stephon Castle)被各种采访折腾得够呛。
无数的麦克风，无数个相同问题的变体——你和文班聊过吗？你穿银黑色西装是故意的吗？——现在又有一位记者问他是否会说其他语言。
卡斯尔被告知，圣安东尼奥是美国西语人口最多的城市之一。这位马刺队最新的新秀点点头，告诉记者他只会说几句西语。
“但我能听懂很多，”卡斯尔说，“只要结合上下文语境就行。”
这可以被称为一种渴望和适应能力。几年前，当马刺队开始考察这位高中生时，他们就发现了这一点，并在多次长时间访问康涅狄格州斯托尔斯后彻底爱上了他。在那里，这位才华横溢的大一后卫证明了自己愿意在任何需要他的地方做出贡献，以至于带领球队夺冠的大学教练称他为“完美的马刺”。
如果说还有人想知道，这位防守强悍、得分流畅的新人的加入，对于一支用周三的另一个首轮签换来六七年后两个选秀权的球队的计划意味着什么？
结合上下文语境，应该也能找到答案。
首先要了解的是，马刺队在 2024 年 NBA 选秀大会上选中了一名适合他们的体系和计划的球员，无论他是否坚持自己选择的控球后卫位置，他都能成为一名改变比赛的人。有了卡斯尔和维克托·文班亚马(Victor Wembanyama)，弗罗斯特银行中心球馆从三分线到篮筐的这一段区域，在未来十年可能会成为对手挡拆战术的“坟墓”。
但关于马刺队周三的操作，第二件要知道的事情是，肯定还有后续。为了弄清楚这一点，我们必须像卡斯尔听别人说西语那样，把注意力集中在上下文语境上。
背景是这样的：尽管马刺队认真对待围绕文班亚马进行长期建队，但他们知道自己不能等到 2030 年才开始出成绩。他们不需要在明年打进季后赛，但他们需要变得更好。
他们需要向球迷展示一些进步。
他们需要向文班亚马——以及他周围的人——展示这一点。
因此，当他们像周三那样进行交易，将 8 号签（肯塔基大学的罗布·迪林汉姆[Rob Dillingham]）送到明尼苏达森林狼队，换来 2030 年的一个首轮签和 2031 年的一个首轮签时，我们有理由认为，这并不是真的要把事情拖到下一个十年。
这些选秀权在那之前就会被交易掉。不支付 8 号签的薪水所腾出的工资帽空间最早将在今年夏天派上用场，要么是为了促成交易，要么是为了签下一名能投篮的自由球员。
如果说交易掉 8 号签说明了什么，那就是马刺队并不打算永远等待交易的到来。这表明他们正在为自己提供尽快完成交易的能力。
现在，他们不能直接宣布他们即将进行一笔重磅交易，甚至是一笔小幅升级，因为这不是他们的风格。他们不在乎赢得本周互联网上的选秀评分，也不介意休赛期的早期头条新闻被其他球队占据，而人们认为他们什么也没做。
“这听起来像我，”在谈到他的新东家喜欢低调行事时，卡斯尔说。“我也有点低调。”
这话从一个在四月份的“最终四强”比赛中看起来像是球场上最好的球员嘴里说出来，可能听起来有点奇怪，但这就是卡斯尔带领康涅狄格大学夺得全国冠军的方式，这一点很有意思。与另一位前十顺位新秀多诺万·克林甘(Donovan Clingan)搭档，卡斯尔在需要的时候会把球权让给队友。他不要求每一次都出手。
但正如康涅狄格大学教练丹·赫尔利(Dan Hurley)周三晚上在巴克莱中心走廊里指出的那样，卡斯尔的存在感总是很强。
“有些比赛我们需要他成为我们的得分王，”赫尔利说。“还有些比赛我们需要他成为连接球队的完美纽带，在防守、组织和篮板上发挥作用。他以非常谦逊的态度做到了这一点，一切都为了胜利。对我来说，这就是马刺的球员。”
赫尔利是怎么知道的？首先，他说，他已经从格雷格·波波维奇(Gregg Popovich)那里偷师了 25 年。在过去的九个月里，他非常熟悉马刺队的管理层，他说他们是为数不多的每次都去现场观看多天训练和比赛的 NBA 球探。
“他们真的非常关注斯蒂芬，”赫尔利说。
卡斯尔也知道这一点。
“他们总是在我脑海里，”这位来自佐治亚州的 6 英尺 6 英寸的后卫在谈到马刺队时说。
卡斯尔意识到，他可能无法像结束大学生涯的唯一一个赛季那样，以庆祝总冠军的方式结束自己的第一个 NBA 赛季。他知道自己现在是一支球队的不可或缺的一部分，这支球队的目标是保持巅峰状态，而这可能还需要几年的时间。
他对此没有意见。
“在赢得总冠军并成为高顺位新秀之后，你通常不会去一支有竞争力的 NBA 球队，”卡斯尔说。“但我对我们球队的现状和未来感到非常高兴。”
他已经从上下文语境中获得了宝贵的线索。
在他的新家，这将帮助他学习更多东西，而不仅仅是西语。
2024 年 6 月 26 日，在纽约布鲁克林区的巴克莱中心举行的 2024 年 NBA 选秀大会首轮比赛中，康涅狄格大学爱斯基摩犬队主教练丹·赫尔利与斯蒂芬·卡斯尔和多诺万·克林甘交谈。
2024 年 6 月 26 日星期三，马刺队球迷在胜利资本表演中心外等待 2024 年 NBA 选秀大会首轮比赛的开始。
2024 年 6 月 26 日星期三，在胜利资本表演中心外举行的 2024 年 NBA 选秀大会首轮比赛观摩派对上，头顶的大屏幕显示马刺队以 4 号签选中了康涅狄格大学后卫斯蒂芬·卡斯尔。
2024 年 6 月 26 日星期三，在胜利资本表演中心外举行的 2024 年 NBA 选秀大会首轮比赛观摩派对上，7 岁的杰斯·埃利斯(Jace Ellis)庆祝马刺队以 8 号签选中了肯塔基大学后卫罗布·迪林汉姆。
2024 年 6 月 26 日星期三，2024 年 NBA 选秀大会首轮比赛结束后，马刺队总经理布莱恩·赖特(Brian Wright)在胜利资本表演中心回答媒体的提问。
2024 年 6 月 26 日星期三，2024 年 NBA 选秀大会首轮比赛结束后，马刺队总经理布莱恩·赖特在胜利资本表演中心回答媒体的提问。
2024 年 6 月 26 日星期三，2024 年 NBA 选秀大会首轮比赛结束后，马刺队总经理布莱恩·赖特在胜利资本表演中心回答媒体的提问。
2024 年 6 月 26 日，在纽约布鲁克林区的巴克莱中心举行的 2024 年 NBA 选秀大会首轮比赛中，斯蒂芬·卡斯尔在被圣安东尼奥马刺队以第四顺位选中后与多诺万·克林甘庆祝。
2024 年 6 月 26 日，在纽约布鲁克林区的巴克莱中心举行的 2024 年 NBA 选秀大会首轮比赛中，斯蒂芬·卡斯尔（右）与 NBA 总裁亚当·萧华（左）握手，此前他被圣安东尼奥马刺队以第四顺位选中。
2024 年 6 月 26 日星期三，在胜利资本表演中心外举行的 2024 年 NBA 选秀大会首轮比赛观摩派对上，球迷们在马刺队以 4 号签选中康涅狄格大学后卫斯蒂芬·卡斯尔后庆祝。
2024 年 6 月 26 日星期三，在胜利资本表演中心外举行的 2024 年 NBA 选秀大会首轮比赛观摩派对上，球迷们庆祝马刺队以 4 号签选中康涅狄格大学后卫斯蒂芬·卡斯尔。
亚利桑那州格伦代尔——4 月 6 日：2024 年 4 月 6 日，在亚利桑那州格伦代尔州立农业体育馆举行的 NCAA 男子篮球锦标赛四强半决赛中，康涅狄格大学爱斯基摩犬队的斯蒂芬·卡斯尔 5 号在下半场对阵阿拉巴马大学红潮队的比赛中做出反应。（照片由 Jamie Squire/Getty Images 提供）
2024 年 6 月 26 日，在纽约市巴克莱中心举行的 2024 年 NBA 选秀大会上，斯蒂芬·卡斯尔。（照片由 Steve Eichner/WWD via Getty Images 提供）
点击查看原文：After adding a 'perfect Spur,' context tells us more about team's plan
After adding a ‘perfect Spur,’ context tells us more about team’s plan
Stephon Castle, right, shakes poses for photos with NBA commissioner Adam Silver after being drafted fourth overall by the San Antonio Spurs during the first round of the NBA Draft at Barclays Center on Wednesday, June 26, 2024, in New York.
NEW YORK — From stage to locker room, from network to network, from podium to sofa in the underbelly of Barclays Center late Wednesday night, Stephon Castle got squeezed through the interview wringer.
There were too many microphones, and far too many versions of the same questions — Have you talked to Wemby? Did you wear a silver-and-black suit on purpose? — and now there was a reporter asking him if he spoke a different language.
San Antonio, Castle was informed, contains one of the largest Spanish-speaking populations in the country. The newest Spurs draft pick nodded, and told the reporter he knew only a few words.
“But I can understand a lot,” Castle said, “just by using context clues.”
This is what one might call an eagerness and an ability to adapt. The Spurs recognized it in him years ago, when they began scouting him as a high-schooler, and they fell in love with it during repeated, extended visits to Storrs, Conn., where a talented freshman guard proved so willing to contribute everywhere he was needed that his championship-winning college coach called him “the perfect Spur.”
And if anyone was left wondering what the addition of this lock-down defending, smooth-scoring newcomer tells us about the plans of a franchise that swapped its other Wednesday first-rounder for two picks six and seven years down the road?
Context clues should help there, too.
The first thing to know about what the Spurs did in the 2024 NBA draft is they acquired a player who fits their program and their scheme, and who can become a difference-maker whether or not he sticks at his chosen position of point guard. Between Castle and Victor Wembanyama, the stretch of Frost Bank Center lumber between the 3-point circle and the basket might be known for the next decade as the place where opposing pick-and-rolls go to die.
But the second thing to know about what the Spurs did Wednesday is that there has to be something else coming. To figure this out, we have to make like Castle listening to people speak Spanish. We have to focus on the context.
The context is this: Even though the Spurs are serious about building for the long term around Wembanyama, they know they can’t wait until 2030 to start showing results. They don’t need to make the playoffs next year, but they need to get better.
They need to show the fans some progress.
They need to show Wembanyama — and those around him — the same.
So when they make a trade like they did Wednesday, sending the rights to the No. 8 overall pick (Kentucky’s Rob Dillingham) to Minnesota for a first-round swap in 2030 and a first-rounder in 2031, it is reasonable to assume this was not really about kicking the can down the road into another decade.
Those picks will be dealt away before then. The cap space vacated by not paying the No. 8 pick will come in handy as early as this summer, either to make a trade work or to sign a free agent who can make a jump shot.
If anything, trading that No. 8 pick wasn’t a sign the Spurs are willing to wait forever to make a move. It was a sign they’re arming themselves with the ability to make one soon.
Now, they can’t come right out and announce they’re on the verge of a blockbuster, or even a modest upgrade, because that’s not who they are. They don’t care about winning this week’s Internet draft grades, and they don’t mind if the early offseason headlines are dominated by other teams while people assume they’re doing nothing.
“That sounds like me,” Castle said of his new franchise’s penchant for flying under the radar. “I’m a little low-key, too.”
That might sound odd coming from the guy who looked like the best player on the floor during the Final Four in April, but it’s the way Castle led UConn to the national championship that was so interesting. Teaming with fellow top-10 pick Donovan Clingan, Castle yielded to teammates when he needed to. He didn’t demand every shot.
But as UConn coach Dan Hurley noted in a Barclays Center hallway Wednesday night, Castle always made his presence felt.
“There were games where we needed him to be our leading scorer,” Hurley said. “And there were games where we needed him to be a beautiful piece of connective tissue, in terms of guarding, facilitating, rebounding. He did it with great humility, and it was all about winning. To me, that’s what a Spur is.”
How would Hurley know that? To start with, he said, he’s been stealing plays from Gregg Popovich for 25 years. And over the past nine months, he grew awfully familiar with the Spurs executives who he said were some of the few NBA scouts who visited for multiple days and practices and games at a time.
“They were really, really dialed in on Steph,” Hurley said.
And Castle knew it, too.
“They were always on the back of my mind,” the 6-foot-6 Georgia native said of the Spurs.
Castle realizes he probably won’t finish his first NBA season celebrating a title, the way he concluded his only year in college. He knows he’s now an integral part of a team aiming for a sustained peak that might still be years away.
He’s OK with that.
“Coming off a championship and being a high pick, you usually don’t go to a winning (NBA) team,” Castle said. “But I’m super happy with how our team looks, and what our future looks like.”
Already, he’s taken valuable clues from the context.
In his new home, it will help him with more than just the Spanish.
UConn Huskies head coach Dan Hurley speaks with Stephon Castle and Donovan Clingan during the first round of the 2024 NBA Draft at Barclays Center on June 26, 2024 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City.
Spurs fans wait outside the Victory Capital Performance Center for the first round of the 2024 NBA Draft on Wednesday, June 26, 2024.
The overhead screen shows the Spurs selection of UConn guard Stephon Castle as the #4 pick at the watch party for the first round of the 2024 NBA Draft outside the Victory Capital Performance Center on Wednesday, June 26, 2024.
Jace Ellis, 7, celebrates the Spurs selection of Kentucky guard Rob Dillingham at #8 pick at the watch party for the first round of the 2024 NBA Draft outside the Victory Capital Performance Center on Wednesday, June 26, 2024.
Spurs general manager Brian Wright fields questions from the media at the Victory Capital Performance Center following the first round of the 2024 NBA Draft on Wednesday, June 26, 2024.
Spurs general manager Brian Wright fields questions from the media at the Victory Capital Performance Center following the first round of the 2024 NBA Draft on Wednesday, June 26, 2024.
Spurs general manager Brian Wright fields questions from the media at the Victory Capital Performance Center following the first round of the 2024 NBA Draft on Wednesday, June 26, 2024.
Stephon Castle celebrates with Donovan Clingan after being drafted fourth overall by the San Antonio Spurs during the first round of the 2024 NBA Draft at Barclays Center on June 26, 2024 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City.
Stephon Castle (R) shakes hands with NBA commissioner Adam Silver (L) after being drafted fourth overall by the San Antonio Spurs during the first round of the 2024 NBA Draft at Barclays Center on June 26, 2024 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City.?
Fans celebrate after the Spurs selection of UConn guard Stephon Castle with the #4 pcik at the watch party outside the Victory Capital Performance Center for the first round of the 2024 NBA Draft on Wednesday, June 26, 2024.
Fans celebrate the Spurs selection of UConn guard Stephon Castle with the #4 pick in the draft at the watch party for the first round of the 2024 NBA Draft outside the Victory Capital Performance Center on Wednesday, June 26, 2024.
GLENDALE, ARIZONA - APRIL 06: Stephon Castle #5 of the Connecticut Huskies reacts in the second half against the Alabama Crimson Tide in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Final Four semifinal game at State Farm Stadium on April 06, 2024 in Glendale, Arizona. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
Stephon Castle at the 2024 NBA Draft held at the Barclays Center on June 26, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Steve Eichner/WWD via Getty Images)
By Mike Finger, Staff writer, via San Antonio Express-News